Tag Archives: own your own business

Franchise Profile: Taste Buds Kitchen

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Have you been to your local Taste Buds Kitchen yet? Taste Buds Kitchen specializes in fresh and unique cooking events. The franchise has a mission to be the top culinary entertainment experience for kids and families by engaging and delighting budding chefs.

What began as a few holiday baking classes and cupcake making birthday parties, quickly evolved into much more. TBK’s culinary adventures includes an ever-growing variety of classes, parties, camps and special events that combine a well-balanced mix of engaging recipes, both savory and sweet, as we take to the kitchen to sprout taste buds and a good time for all ages.

Taste Buds Kitchen is proclaimed the “Best Kids Cooking Class” by New York Magazine and featured as the must try activity by CBS, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, The New York Times, Hampton Magazine and more.

Franchise Opportunity

Taste Buds Kitchen provides a great opportunity to own a business that is exciting AND delicious. By joining the Taste Buds Kitchen family, you can capitalize on the popularity of their concept by opening a Kids Kitchen in your community.

The Kitchen
Taste Buds Kitchen is an amazing Kitchen Studio designed and built just for kids.  Tables and chairs adjust for kids and adults of all ages and kitchen utensils are located on lower shelves so that the kids can reach and take part in the whole kitchen experience alongside chef instructors.

With your franchise you will receive a design and construction specification that will give you all the details on how to build your own Taste Buds Kitchen!

You’re in Good Hands

TBK has designed a system to assist their franchisees from the day they sign the franchise agreement through their pre-opening, grand opening, and through the life of the business. Training is held at the corporate kitchen in New York City. The program includes both time in the kitchen and hands on training in important areas such as marketing and sales, administration, operations, customer service, human resources and, most importantly, cupcake decorating.  To assist in creating an environment of success, TBK will provide assistance and sometimes have final approval on the following items Site Selection, Accounting Software and Systems, Content development, Advertising and promotion, Marketing strategies, and Ongoing Branding.

Interested in learning more? Check out http://franchiseclique.com/franchise/Taste-Buds-Kitchen

 

Traditional Media and Content Marketing

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It probably comes as no surprise that the printed newspaper and magazine industries are shrinking. Less and less people are reading printed articles, and more and more are turning to online media for their news. It is interesting to learn in recent studies that the trust of your targeted audience may be diminishing as well. Recently in a Gawker.com article, an executive from Chipotle said that Millennials “are skeptical of brands that perpetuate themselves.”

There is a decreasing number of future customers who have no desire to see commercials or ads that they don’t believe are true. Traditional marketing strategies as a whole just don’t seem to be getting the job done anymore when it comes to younger generations. With social media, we are bombarded daily with a surplus of news, opinions, and advertisements. The key to successful public relations strategies now is understanding what to share and how to share it.

Which leads to content marketing.  Content marketing is created when a company develops its own content in the form of articles, blogs, or videos featuring the business. The content must be professional, honest, and not self-serving. Bloggers, specifically, are becoming increasingly credible and popular influencers and can help drive products while not appearing as self-promoting as other forms of advertising.

What is your business doing to reach you target audience? Leave comments below!

How Creative Initiatives Can Fuel Growth

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Through challenging economic times, franchisors have developed new ways to fuel growth and development in their business. When it comes to finding qualified, well-funded prospects for franchising, usually portals, franchise consultants, and advertising & networking all are strong factors in growing a franchise. Lead-generation sites, like Franchise Clique, play a huge role in connecting qualified clients to franchisors and consultants. Beyond these necessary tactics, franchisors are branching out further, and bringing creative ideas to development.

From the patterns I’ve observed, this is happening in several ways. Parent companies of franchising brands are now taking new approaches to their stores – in locations that offer opportunities for food-court style eating, such as hospitals, malls, and airports where normally one brand would be placed in a store, developers are bringing three or four of their brands to the same location. Both dual-brand storefronts and co-branded store partnerships are certainly on the rise in the franchising market. Providing two goods or services in one location offers customers more of a variety, and targets a wider range of customers altogether.

In addition to multi-brand locations, I continue to see a growth in social enterprise within the franchise industry. Non-profit organizations such as Affordable Homes of South Texas, Inc., Dale Rogers Training Center, and the National Christian Foundation are all teaming up with major franchises like Great Clips, Papa Murphy’s, and Blimpie, bringing franchisee profits straight to these organizations.

These partnerships are doing well because they solve fundamental issues that both franchisors and non-profits face. On one hand, franchisors benefit because they are launching a new location, which is owned and managed by a non-profit group that possesses strong and favorable community reputation, while on the other,  the non-profit benefits because it is buying into proven concepts and corporate office teams who are invested in their success. It truly is a win-win.

What are other ways you have seen franchisors creatively fuel growth? Leave your comments below!

Hyperlocal Marketing: What is it and how can it help your business?

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There has been a lot of talk recently in the marketing world about a new concept: hyperlocal marketing technology. Hyperlocal marketing uses the GPS feature and a mobile app on your smartphone to send targeted messages from a nearby franchise. The marketing is hyperlocal because the messages are for a small, specific area. This specific area can be specified through setting virtual perimeters around a specific location, an action referred to as “geofenching”.

Geofencing technology allows businesses to track when customers enter a defined area nearby their location through the GPS software on a person’s smartphone.

This technology means big things for a franchise.

Say you’re a Papa Murphy’s franchise in the Charleston,SC area. You can set up specific perimeters around your location so that when someone enters your virtual “fence”, you can send that discounted pizza coupon directly to them via their mobile phone. As they are within say one mile of your business, they will receive an alert on their phone with the pizza coupon and, hopefully, stop in at your shop. The key here is that these are also customers who have opted-in to receive offers; therefore, you are reaching a market of people who are already interested in special deals and offers.

The rapid growth of smartphone technology has delivered an entirely new platform to marketers. Businesses are now reaching customers in ways never thought possible in the past. How can this be translated to your business?

What are your opinions on hyperlocal marketing? Do you think that this could lead to an overflow of information to customers, causing them to become disenchanted, or is it an effective marketing tool that has an ever-growing presence in our future?

Are You Using Environmentally Responsible Pest Control Services?

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Are You Using Environmentally Responsible Pest Control Services?

It is not breaking news that many of the products that are used for pest control in our homes are toxic to both humans and pets. Most people are willing to compromise the health of them and their family members for pest elimination when in actuality there are health conscious and eco-friendly ways to rid their home of unwanted creatures. LadyBug Eco-Friendly Pest Control does just that. The company has over 23 years of pest control experience and use products that are entirely National Organic Program (NOP) compliant.

The main product that LadyBug Eco-Friendly Pest Control uses is called Diatomaceous Earth which, once refined, resembles talcum powder. The powder is made from one-cell plant organisms extracted from the bottom of large bodies of fresh water. This natural ingredient kills pests like roaches, ants, crickets, spiders and scorpions without bringing harmful chemicals inside of your home.

Is there an environmentally responsible pest control service in your area?

Read on if you are interested in this eco-friendly franchise opportunity!

 

Lady Bug Eco-Friendly Pest Control  Franchise Specifics:

Benefits Of Unit Ownership With Lady Bug

  • Life-Style Opportunity (M-F 9 to 5)
  • LOW Unit Investment Of $30,000 Per Unit, 2nd ½ price
  • Fast ROI With HIGH Net Return
  • 1 Truck/Route With 300 Monthly Customers =$150,000
  • A Unit Can Have Multiple Truck Routes!
  • Pest Control Operation – Repeat Monthly Revenue
  • All Training At Corporate Office For Unit Owners

Benefits Of A Regional Developer

  • Multiple Revenue Streams
  • Revenue From Their Own Unit
  • Unit included In The RD price
  • Revenue from Selling Units & Collecting Franchise Fees
  • Developing Territories & Selling Customers to Units
  • Receiving Royalty Stream
  • All Training at Corporate Office For RD’s

Unit Investment

  • $30k Franchise Fee
  • Capital $40,000+
  • 70k Total Invest
  • 7-10% Royalty
  • 2% Advertising Fund

Unit Numbers

  • $150,000 Revenue Per Truck/Route (300 customers)
  • 1 Unit Can Have Multiple Trucks/Routes
  • Avg. Pest Control Service $45 rate
  • Up To 50% Net Profit

What is Social Franchising?

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The success of franchising comes from the transfer of knowledge and experience from one successful enterprise to another. With an established business concept, as well as support and training, a franchisee can quickly become successful thanks to the foundation upon which his or her business is built. While with most commercial franchises the goal is to maximize profits, social franchises use the principles of franchising for a social goal.

What is social franchising and how does it differ from commercial franchising?

Social franchises are driven by social goals, rather than profit. While the franchise does make profit, this profit is used to develop its social aims. Social aims can include food security, poverty alleviation, or environmental conservation. According to the European Social Franchising Network (ESFN), a social franchise should be a social enterprise, and  have the four following characteristics:

  1. An organization that replicates a social enterprise business model – the social franchisor.
  2. At least one independent social franchisee that has been replicated by the social franchisor.
  3. A common brand under which the social franchisees operate.
  4. An interchange of knowledge between members.

Social franchises can operate in various ways, but generally a social franchisee pays the social franchisor a fee for their support. Differing from other non-profit charities and foundations, where most of the funding comes from grants and personal donations, social franchises use the sales of their successful business model to create a better world.

For example, Community Renewable Energy (CoRE), a European social franchise, helps communities develop their own renewable energy systems to generate community income and address climate change. The franchise does so through working in partnership with a specific community, where the community is not charged for CoRE’s work, but rather as a stakeholder in the the renewable energy systems, where they take a share of the profits. This share is then used to help the next community. The social franchise essentially supports their members by providing “technical skills, shared services, and replicable models for developing renewable energy systems.”

Are you familiar with any social franchises in your area? Please feel free to comment below!

Franchising – Is It for You?

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When someone decides to buy a franchise, there are many questions which need to be asked before they part with their money.

 

Does the company have a solid reputation?  Do you have the required funds to make owning the business licence a reality?  Will your bank lend you additional funds to help you get started?

 

While all these questions are perfectly valid, they fail to touch on another important area which should be explored before you consider taking up a franchise opportunity.  This additional area is you.

 

It is easy to overlook your own skills and qualities when you are researching the opportunities on offer, yet these will act as the most valuable components of your potential success or failure.  You need to be sure of your own strengths and weaknesses before sinking thousands of dollars into a franchise.

 

It may be that the idea of owning your own business appeals to you, but doing it all on your own seems too daunting to consider.  Franchising offers you the security of trading under a familiar name, selling a product the buying public already knows about.  You are entering a business which, in effect, has already been sweated over and set up for you.  All the hard work has been done… right?

 

Well, not exactly.  The groundwork has been laid, yes, but there is still a lot of hard work to be done on your part, and you should be prepared to put in long hours – at least to begin with – if your franchise is to succeed.  There can be a lot of money in franchising, but as with all money making ideas, it does not work on its own.  Are you persevering enough to see it through?

 

Alternately, if you like to operate totally on your own, franchising is not likely to be a good choice.  You will be your own boss to an extent, but not all the decision making will be down to you.  You need to be honest with yourself here – does this work structure appeal to you… or are you put off entirely?

 

Confidence is another keystone in the world of franchising.  If you doubt your own abilities at all, then any success you achieve is likely to be on a small scale.  You need to have an unshakeable belief in yourself – preferably one which is backed up by people who know and will support you.  No business venture is foolproof, but with an ability to recognise this and a belief that you will eventually succeed, you will be better able to plod determinedly through the hard times in order to reach a higher level of success.

 

You also need to consider which franchise would suit you best.  There are several hundred companies offering franchises to the right people, encompassing many areas of operation – clothing, business services and food outlets, to name but a few.

 

If you happen to be a vegetarian, then a franchise with McDonalds is probably not a good idea.  You need to choose a company which operates in a sector you are familiar with, and one in which you will preferably have some existing skills.  For example, if you had some experience in the clothing industry, then you will no doubt possess some useful skills which can be put into a franchise with a company such as Benetton.  Monetary input is not the only decisive factor when buying a franchise.

 

The question of location is another important area to consider.  An increasing number of franchisees – especially those with family commitments – are working from home, and you may find the advantages of this kind of franchise would appeal to you more than if you worked in a shop.  Travel expenses are virtually non-existent, you don’t have the worry of shop (and home) security when you are in one place or the other, and your working day is much more flexible.

 

With the help relevant associations in your country can give you (try a search on Google), you will be able to assess whether or not you are the right person to take on a franchise.

 

If you do have what it takes, and you make the most of the skills and abilities you have, then success in this attractive, rapidly growing and relatively secure sector of the business market may soon be yours.